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Killy
Killy is the enigmatic main protagonist of BLAME! ''by Tsutomu Nihei. Armed with the mighty GBE, he is a provisional Safeguard unit tasked with finding the Net Terminal Gene, which, if found, would be able to halt the expansion of the City, thereby saving all human life within it from hostility by the rogue Safeguards. Killy's journey throughout the City and his encounters with its inhabitants make up most of the series. Appearance Killy is a provisional Safeguard unit in the form of a lean, pale-skinned young man with short black hair. Despite his inorganic nature and superhuman abilities, Killy adamantly considers himself human, as do most of the people he meets (though "human" is a rather loose term in the ''BLAME! ''universe). Throughout the entirety of the manga, Killy smiles exactly once, after telling a pair of Silicon Life he destroyed a nursery carrying thousands of their infants. Apart from that one instance, Killy's expression never changes from either stoic boredom or anger. Like many characters, Killy possesses various cybernetic features, though they are not readily visible. He has a HUD (heads-up display) in his retinas that he uses to scan the environment around him, and a small box with several connection ports that hangs from his hip and is wired to the back of his head. When not in use, Killy keeps this box tucked inside his outfit. Killy's outfit changes four times throughout the manga. His first outfit is a baggy, black jumpsuit, similar to the white ones worn by the Planters. Later, once he and Cibo escape Bio-Electric, she gives him a tight, synthetic suit. When he finds a Safeguard armory, he finds a thicker, plated armor suit similar to the one Dhomochevsky wears. After the partial destruction of the unofficial stratum by a high level Safeguard made by Cibo by stealing Safeguard illegally downloaded data that was stolen by Davinelulinvega, Killy loses 40.82% of his body mass, leaving him a cybernetic skeleton fused to a heap of molten metal. Over time, he regenerates and, along with his bodily tissues, generates a new, more advanced, armored skinsuit. Upon breaking free, he generates a collared jacket and some tactical gear to complete the outfit. This outfit is often referred to by fans as the "Playford" outfit due to the word emblazoned on the back of the jacket, and is the outfit most promotional material features him in. Personality On the surface, Killy has no personality to speak of. He has the fewest speaking lines of any major character, barely more than a few words a chapter, and most things he says are either questions regarding his mission or irritated remarks. That said, whether it be some kind of conscience or another facet of his programming, Killy has demonstrated compassion. In Volume I Chapter 7 "The Builders," Killy lies to Kumoi about being the healer when they first met to comfort him in death. Also, when Killy and Cibo meet the Electrofishers, Killy offers them food when he sees that they have very little(Blame! Movie). However, these incidences of kindness are few and far between. Moreover, what Killy presents in kindness and compassion towards humans, he makes up for with scathing hatred for and hostility towards Silicon Life. As an agent of the Administration, it is to be expected that Killy and Silicon Life are enemies, but Killy seems to derive an inordinate amount of pleasure from killing them. The only time Killy ever smiles in the manga is after seeing the horrified expressions of a pair of Silicon Life, unemotional creatures to begin with. After telling them he murdered countless of their infants. When he meets the Observer, a being that assures him it means him no harm, Killy violently kills him because he was Silicon Life. Overall, he has a very violent and impatient disposition, never standing still for too long unless sleeping or recovering, and readily uses the GBE on anything that bars his path for too long. Background From Volume 3 onwards, it is revealed that Killy is no ordinary human at all. In her attempt to register Killy as a Safeguard, Sanakan, intentionally or not, re-enabled Killy's cybernetic functions that had been dormant for some time. During the encounter outside Toha Heavy Industries, where he was knocked out from using too much power from firing the GBE, we see from his point of view that he can now scan for the Net Terminal Genes automatically. Zuru asks him if anything is wrong, and we see his viewpoint, filled with little windows and analyzing the eyes of the person, along with other unknown elements. His response to her question is "I understand what the displays mean now.", implying that he was able to see these things before but didn't know what they meant. This is where he leaves the room and immediately scans the people outside, even Cibo, who is unaware of his change. However, he senses a strange reading from one of them, even a small scan (possibly x-ray) showed up with a metallic endoskeleton. It was Sanakan, as she was one of the Safeguard, she then activates her functions and starts destroying things with her own GBE. He then apparently 'rejects registration with the Safeguard', and Sanakan tries to kill him, only to be defeated for the time being. Later in the manga, Killy is shown to be able to see objects as far away as 3,000 kilometers using his naked eyes. This contrasts his need for binoculars in the volume 1 of the manga. In the art book Blame! and So On it is stated that Killy is a human who has had extensive cybernetic enhancements, and before the Netsphere catastrophe he probably worked as a police officer. Killy has been alive for a very long time; when he lost a large portion of his body mass, it took him over 14 years to regenerate; a lift trip took a minimum of 33 days. Tsutomu Nihei has stated that Killy is over 3000 years old and his memory loss is merely a side-effect of his aging. Eventually, he reaches the edge of the city with the Net Terminal Gene carrier, and in the last frame of the manga, he is shown to be alive and well, firing his gun past the camera, with the Net Terminal Gene carrier behind him, clothed in protective gear against the poison the Silicon Life introduced. Powers & Abilities '''Superhuman Prowess: ' As a safeguard unit, Killy is immensely strong, able to move massive blocks of concrete with ease. He is also extremely durable, such that he can be sent flying through several thick walls and still get up to fight. Heightened Senses: Thanks to his retinal display and other augmentations, Killy has extremely fine hearing and vision, able to pinpoint the locations of humans and Silicon Life from a great distance, up to 3000 km. However, this only applies if they are in a clear path from him, that is, far away but visible. Regeneration: Despite his durability, Killy is mangled frequently. No matter how severe the injury, however, even when he lost almost half his body mass, Killy can regenerate the lost tissue over time. When he does, it comes back stronger and more durable than the previous time. '''Gravitational Beam Emitter (GBE): '''Killy's only weapon and the most destructive weapon in the manga, the GBE is the only reason Killy has made it as far as he has. Despite being no bigger than a regular pistol, the GBE fires a beams of energy that travel hundreds of kilometers in a straight line, disintegrating everything in its path. It is unknown where/how Killy found the gun (even he doesn't know), but it was most likely given to him by the Administration when he first began his mission centuries before the manga opens. The gun does not use ammunition, like Dhomochevsky's, but rather uses energy from its user's own body. In quiet times, Killy produces a syringe of "energy" and injects it into his head, effectively recharging the gun. '''Hip Connector: '''Killy's connector allows him to connect himself to various machines and systems through retractable cables embedded in his side. It also features a clicker button that allows him to communicate with Builders in binary clicks.Category:Characters Category:Safeguard